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This mosasaurus coloring page shows a giant sea reptile swimming in a long curve through the ocean, with its jaws open in a grin. One thing first, and it is a fact every young fan should know: a mosasaurus was not a dinosaur. It was a reptile that lived in the sea, and it is here because kids love it just as much. Ages 6 to 12 will do well with this page.
The waves run along the top of the sheet, with soft beams of light coming down through the water. A small school of fish darts away to the right. You will also spot two jellyfish, some ammonites with coiled shells and a sea floor of rocks and weed.
Mosasaurus coloring page color ideas
Nobody has seen the living animal, so its colors are open to you. Plenty of sea animals today have a dark back and a pale belly, which makes them harder to see from above or below. That makes a fine starting point.
- Color the back scales in deep green or dark blue.
- Mix in a few lighter scales here and there.
- Keep the long belly plates cream or white.
- Make the flippers and tail one solid color, darker than the body.
The tail fin has its own two part shape. Orange gives it a pop, and the eye goes straight to it. A shark gray body with an orange tail is a nice surprise as well.
How to color the water
This is the biggest area on the page, so choose an easy tool. Hold a blue crayon on its side and rub gently over the whole sea. Go a little darker near the floor and lighter near the surface.
Leave the beams of light white or the palest yellow. Against the blue they will really look like sunshine. If you are using markers, do the water last and work in sections, because wet edges leave streaks.
Small things to try
The scales are small, so a younger child can skip them. Color the whole body in one shade, then pick out only the scales near the head. For older kids and adults, those rows of ovals make for calm, steady work. Set aside about forty minutes.
Each ammonite is built from little curved cells. Color them in a two color pattern and they look like tiny striped shells.
Sea reptile facts
Mosasaurus lived about 82 to 66 million years ago, late in the Cretaceous period. Its closest living relatives include lizards and snakes. The largest kind may have reached 39 feet long.
Its four limbs were paddles for steering in the water, and its long tail ended in a downward bend with a paddle shaped fluke. You can see that shape in our drawing. Experts think it would eat nearly any animal it could catch, from fish and sharks to sea turtles.
The first fossils were skulls, found in a chalk quarry near the Dutch city of Maastricht in the late 1700s. At the time, people thought they came from crocodiles or whales. The Wikipedia article on Mosasaurus covers that story.
Sort it out
Here is a fast game. Make two columns on a sheet, one for dinosaurs and one for other ancient reptiles. Read out names such as T rex, mosasaurus, stegosaurus and pterodactyl, and let your child sort them. Pterosaurs and sea reptiles are not dinosaurs, and many grown-ups get this wrong, so it feels great for a child to know better.
In class, talk about what makes a flipper different from a leg, and have students wave a flat hand through water in a bowl.
For more sea life, print the sea turtle coloring page or the whale coloring page. Both have the same kind of big, open water to color.
Questions
Was a mosasaurus a dinosaur?
No. It was a sea reptile from the group that includes lizards and snakes. It lived at the same time as many dinosaurs, which is why it often appears in dinosaur books.
Why is it in the dinosaur pages then?
Kids who love dinosaurs tend to love this animal too, and it is a good way to teach the difference.
What are the coiled shells?
They are ammonites, sea animals with spiral shells that shared the ocean with the mosasaurus. They are long gone now.
